Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
I've been back for around a week now, been very busy with jet lag and jobseekers allowance and a weekend with a friend in Edinburgh before she had to knuckle down and finish her assignments, so apologies for the delayed blog.
It was harder than I imagined to say goodbye to my host family and all the friends I made during my stay. I first had to say goodbye to the people at the school, friday was my last day so I handed out some celtic enamel bookmarks I had brought with me from home, which they liked a lot due to the pretty designs. The Mongolian- English teachers clubbed together and got me some lovely leather gloves in return and a little leather hanging of Chinguis Khaan. Deegi from room 108 with all the unused computers gave me a beautiful framed photograph of her 'loving racehorse' against a backdrop of traditional gers and a satellite dish which was around the same size of the attached ger, something which folks at home found infinitely amusing.
On the saturday Anhaa invited me to her flat with Khishgi. She lives even closer to the school then I do in a very new, clean and modern flat, although small and basic with very few possessions. Anhaa has a beautiful little daughter ,Ana I think her name was, who is 15 months old (shares the same birthday as me) Khishgi and myself spent a few hours aw-ing over her and feeding her tomatoes, gherkins and homemade cream cheese while Anhaa made a large pizza (to my considerable surprise) complete with lots of veggies and tinned fish and copious amounts of beer (pizza and beer?- sheer heaven). Khishgi left shortly after eating leaving me and Anhaa to watch Mamma Mia and play with Ana who turned out to have a very generous nature as she took great pleasure in emptying my purse of money and handing it back to me note by note. I entertained her by spinning a British pound on its side, but she managed to get hold of my phone somehow which was covered in baby drool by the time I left.
It was especially sad for me to say goodbye to those two as they had become good friends and had been such good fun throughout my stay.
I spent most of sunday and monday morning packing, and managed to play one last game of blind mans buff with Zulaa when she came back from school, again it was very hard and sad to say goodbye to Chimge and Zulaa, but Chimge is keeping my riding hat for me (to heavy to travel back) so I will come back and use it again in a couple of years.
I was driven to the 'port by Sete and Jagaa which turned out to be rather tiny (I was panicking a bit and looking around for my boarding gate before realising I was standing next to the only gate in the building), a rather uneventful flight to Seoul, I was sitting next to a New Zealander and we were both entertained by a flying baby who made frequent appearances dangling from its parents arms above the seats in front.
I arrived in Seoul fairly late at night and got promptly lost (huge airport, must of wandered miles) but managed to find my way to the transit hotel eventually where I found that my room was reserved but not paid for much to my confusion (couldn't contact home for help as there was no reception anywhere in the airport- I went another wander just to check. Luckily I had enough dollars to cover it, just had to resist the rather tempting mini bar in my room.
I spent a few hours before my flight by my departure gate in the morning, when getting there I was accosted by a group of Koreans who were determined my scruffy workman's jacket I had hung from my suitcase shouldn't trail on the ground. It was quite a bizarre but sweet gesture and I thanked them after they rearranged it to their satisfaction.
I ended up sitting next to an Australian lady and her little daughter Eve, my suitcase handle inconveniently broke when I was trying to load it into a locker, one of the cabin crew had a wrestle with it but it was jammed fast. The flight was horribly long and I couldn't sleep at all, but there was a great selection of films on the in flight entertainment systems although it kept breaking, so me and Eve went for walks round the plane to look out the windows and admired the stunning frozen tundra, moon and pink sunset that remained below us for the most of the journey.
There was also a long wait for my baggage in London but eventually I was able to move out of baggage collection and start to panic as I realised I had no idea where to go next. A quick trip to an information desk and I abandoned my trolley and dragged my luggage towards the underground. Once in the right terminal and past security I had my first fish and chips in three months and tried not to fall asleep. I did fall asleep on the plane to Edinburgh and only woke when we landed with a jolt and my mp3 flew off my lap and down the row of seats in front of me, quite embarrassing as I had to get a long row of people to search for it and pass it back.
After collecting my luggage I had a slightly emotional reunion with my parents and woke up enough during the car journey to keep them up until 2 am.
It's been nice to be back home and see my friends and family again and have my favourite foods, have a nicer selection of clothes to wear but gotta say the weathers a huge downer, I miss blue skies despite the negative temperatures. Now I'm concentrating on getting a job, and getting into a normal routine and trying not to let the rain get to me!
It was harder than I imagined to say goodbye to my host family and all the friends I made during my stay. I first had to say goodbye to the people at the school, friday was my last day so I handed out some celtic enamel bookmarks I had brought with me from home, which they liked a lot due to the pretty designs. The Mongolian- English teachers clubbed together and got me some lovely leather gloves in return and a little leather hanging of Chinguis Khaan. Deegi from room 108 with all the unused computers gave me a beautiful framed photograph of her 'loving racehorse' against a backdrop of traditional gers and a satellite dish which was around the same size of the attached ger, something which folks at home found infinitely amusing.
On the saturday Anhaa invited me to her flat with Khishgi. She lives even closer to the school then I do in a very new, clean and modern flat, although small and basic with very few possessions. Anhaa has a beautiful little daughter ,Ana I think her name was, who is 15 months old (shares the same birthday as me) Khishgi and myself spent a few hours aw-ing over her and feeding her tomatoes, gherkins and homemade cream cheese while Anhaa made a large pizza (to my considerable surprise) complete with lots of veggies and tinned fish and copious amounts of beer (pizza and beer?- sheer heaven). Khishgi left shortly after eating leaving me and Anhaa to watch Mamma Mia and play with Ana who turned out to have a very generous nature as she took great pleasure in emptying my purse of money and handing it back to me note by note. I entertained her by spinning a British pound on its side, but she managed to get hold of my phone somehow which was covered in baby drool by the time I left.
It was especially sad for me to say goodbye to those two as they had become good friends and had been such good fun throughout my stay.
I spent most of sunday and monday morning packing, and managed to play one last game of blind mans buff with Zulaa when she came back from school, again it was very hard and sad to say goodbye to Chimge and Zulaa, but Chimge is keeping my riding hat for me (to heavy to travel back) so I will come back and use it again in a couple of years.
I was driven to the 'port by Sete and Jagaa which turned out to be rather tiny (I was panicking a bit and looking around for my boarding gate before realising I was standing next to the only gate in the building), a rather uneventful flight to Seoul, I was sitting next to a New Zealander and we were both entertained by a flying baby who made frequent appearances dangling from its parents arms above the seats in front.
I arrived in Seoul fairly late at night and got promptly lost (huge airport, must of wandered miles) but managed to find my way to the transit hotel eventually where I found that my room was reserved but not paid for much to my confusion (couldn't contact home for help as there was no reception anywhere in the airport- I went another wander just to check. Luckily I had enough dollars to cover it, just had to resist the rather tempting mini bar in my room.
I spent a few hours before my flight by my departure gate in the morning, when getting there I was accosted by a group of Koreans who were determined my scruffy workman's jacket I had hung from my suitcase shouldn't trail on the ground. It was quite a bizarre but sweet gesture and I thanked them after they rearranged it to their satisfaction.
I ended up sitting next to an Australian lady and her little daughter Eve, my suitcase handle inconveniently broke when I was trying to load it into a locker, one of the cabin crew had a wrestle with it but it was jammed fast. The flight was horribly long and I couldn't sleep at all, but there was a great selection of films on the in flight entertainment systems although it kept breaking, so me and Eve went for walks round the plane to look out the windows and admired the stunning frozen tundra, moon and pink sunset that remained below us for the most of the journey.
There was also a long wait for my baggage in London but eventually I was able to move out of baggage collection and start to panic as I realised I had no idea where to go next. A quick trip to an information desk and I abandoned my trolley and dragged my luggage towards the underground. Once in the right terminal and past security I had my first fish and chips in three months and tried not to fall asleep. I did fall asleep on the plane to Edinburgh and only woke when we landed with a jolt and my mp3 flew off my lap and down the row of seats in front of me, quite embarrassing as I had to get a long row of people to search for it and pass it back.
After collecting my luggage I had a slightly emotional reunion with my parents and woke up enough during the car journey to keep them up until 2 am.
It's been nice to be back home and see my friends and family again and have my favourite foods, have a nicer selection of clothes to wear but gotta say the weathers a huge downer, I miss blue skies despite the negative temperatures. Now I'm concentrating on getting a job, and getting into a normal routine and trying not to let the rain get to me!
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